CRANK THE VOLUME, CHAMBER ANOTHER ROUND, AND BURN LIKE HELL…
After The Outer Worlds and Beyond Good & Evil 2, the third upcoming game with a spacey feel that I’ve been following is this: Rebel Galaxy Outlaw. It’s the successor to Double Damage Games’ fairly well rated 2015 Rebel Galaxy. The reason it’s not Rebel Galaxy 2 is because the storyline takes place before the events in the original game.
Juno Markev was an outlaw and smuggler who went straight and settled down, until her husband was murdered on what should have been a simple shipping run. She’s on the trail of the guy that did it.
Things don’t go as planned, After an encounter in a shady watering hole goes bad, her ship is destroyed. She finds herself in debt to an old friend and casino owner who gives her a rustbucket and some words of advice.
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw takes place in a greasy, blue-collar world of outlaws, truckers, cops and thieves. Nobody’s saving the universe around here. They’d settle for saving their own skin.
Slide into your cockpit, switch on the Subspace Radio and listen to one of 7 stations with over 21 hours of music, DJs and commercials.
Drop by a seedy dive bar and play a round of 8-ball or dice poker for credits or gear. Or just sweat a few rounds of StarVenger. But don’t waste too much time, those Tachyon Lasers aren’t going to buy themselves.
The game’s official website FAQ provides a pretty decent insight into the game’s development:
Q: When? How much?
A: Probably early 2019. 30 bucks.
Q: Is this a sequel to Rebel Galaxy?
A: It’s a prequel! It’s cockpit-focused this time.
Q: Hey, so Rebel Galaxy was that game where you couldn’t fly up or down, did you make it so
A: Yes. OK? Just…yes you can fly up and down.
Q: Does this have multiplayer?
A: Nope. (Cue wailing and gnashing of teeth)
Q: Can I fly capital ships?
A: Nope! Sorry, all about the cockpits and beer coozies this time out. Plus you wanted to fly up and down.
Q: Can I manage a fleet?
A: This is totally not that kind of game. But you can play 8-ball and dice in crappy bars and bet for ship parts. So we’ve got that going for us.
Q: Does it have a story campaign?
A: Yep.
Q: How long is the game?
A: We dunno yet, but there’s a reason we have over 20 hours of music…
Q: The main character is a lady. Do I have to play a lady?
A: Yes. Juno is awesome.
Q: Is this game moddable? Cause I wanna put X-Wings in it.
A: Yes, it’s moddable. What’s an X-Wing?
Q: Can I use my HOTAS? It’s dusty and lonely.
A: You betcha
Q: Can I use mouse/keyboard?
A: Yes and it’s remappable and it’s fine but please god just use a gamepad
Q: Can I paint my ship?
A: OMG yes. An absurdly definitive yes. Also you can 3d print it and have it mailed to you. Rad, yeah?
Q: This looks like it has aim and flight assists. Is this game for babies?
A: Yes this game is for babies (i.e. us), but also we have pro modes for not-babies.
Q: How much music is in this thing
A: Over 21 hours of radio. It’s a lot of friggin’ music.
Q: Custom Soundtracks & Radio Stations?
A: Well yeah.
Q: How much is this gonna cost?
A: 30 bucks/euros
Q: What platforms?
A: PC, PS4, Switch so far…
Q: Mac?
A: Nuh uh. Sorry, just numbers. And who knows what’s happening with OpenGL there.
Q: LINUX?
A: See previous answer and divide those numbers by a lot.
Q: This game looks like it has swears. I don’t like swears.
A: That’s… that’s not a question?
Q: Why should I play your game?
A: If you don’t think Spaceships, Biker Gangs, Decaying Blue-Collar Americana, Machine Guns and a complete disregard for accurate space physics go together, then there’s probably not a good reason.
In terms of the “30 bucks/euros” price tag, the developers announced a few days ago that the game will be releasing exclusively on the newly opened Epic Games Store. And while the pro and con discussions about this decision continue to rage in their forums, Double Damage tried to do a little damage control by setting up a Q&A page to explain their thinking.
The Epic Store page for the game is here:
And a little gameplay highlights trailer from IGN who got to spend a bit of time with a development build back in October.
I might well be imagining it, but I get some serious Wing Commander: Privateer vibes watching this.
Honestly, the next year or two are going to be good for those of us who like space-themed games. These three and Anthem, together with the (please, please, please) possibility of the release of Squadron 42 in the next 12-18 months, and the continuing development of Star Citizen all make me happy.
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